Give me 9min, and I'll improve your storytelling skills by 176%

[0:00]Hey there. Storytelling is one of the most powerful tools to hook your listeners and keep them glued to every word you say. But hey, a lot of the advice that is out there, make it sound way too complicated. But the truth is storytelling is actually pretty simple if you know what really matters. If you just give me nine minutes, you'll discover the five storytelling techniques to tell insanely good stories. But before we do that, let me show you a quick example by John Krasinski, whom you might know from The Office. It's a 20-second story, so really short, but it's so powerful. By the end of today, you'll know exactly how to tell stories just like him. And then I said, yeah, and he says, says, uh, who are you visiting here? I said my wife and he says, is she an actress? I said, yeah. He said, would I know her? And I, I don't know, man. Her name's Emily Blunt. He goes, he goes, You? And I went, yeah, and he goes, he goes like this. Oh, okay, go. Did you notice what he did there? He didn't just summarize the events. He didn't say, oh, yeah, back then I was at customs and the agent asked me what I was doing and I responded I was an actor, then he was very surprised. He doesn't do that. He doesn't summarize the events. Instead, he zoomed into the moment of the story. The best stories don't just summarize events. They don't stay at that helicopter level. They zoom into the moment. They take us into the trenches. They let us be part of that physical moment. The thing is, it's not that difficult. I'm now going to show you five techniques that you can use in all of your stories. First technique: location. Say where you are. The best stories start by stating the location. Where are you physically? Examples: Two weeks ago, I'm sitting on my couch in my living room, taking a deep breath. Or, September 2019, I'm standing in front of the conference room, ready to walk inside. Now, why does it matter to state the location? Because the moment you say conference room or living room, your audience will start to visualize it. They are like, oh yes, I know a conference room, and they start to visualize their version of that conference room. Now, beginner storytellers, they often do the mistake that they give too many details. They're like, uh, in that conference room, there was a big table, a television, and a wooden floor. Don't do that. Don't do that. It doesn't matter. Just state the location. As long as they can visualize it, it doesn't matter all the details. They have their own version of that location. Second technique: actions. What are you doing in that specific moment of the story? Instead of giving way too much context about all the random stuff that doesn't matter, just say what are you doing in that specific moment. That can be walking, biking, shouting, reading, waiting, whatever it is, just state the actions, state the verbs. Examples: I'm in my office, I open my laptop and start reading a message by my manager. Or, two weeks ago, I'm at the airport, waiting in line at security. Now, why does it matter to state the actions? Because it brings in forward momentum. It takes the listener right into the moment. When you do that, your audience will immediately know that you won't waste their time. You're straight away taking them into the most important part of the story. Third technique: thoughts. What are you thinking? We, as humans, have thousands and thousands of thoughts every single day. A lot of those thoughts are hopes, dreams, plans, fears, worries, crazy thoughts. Now, share some of those thoughts of that crucial moment of the story. Example, instead of saying, I was excited to meet my crush, say, I thought, ah, this will be so cool, right? Finally, I can see here after all that time. Or, instead of saying, I was very disappointed about that presentation, say, I thought, oh man, this is bad, right? Everyone will think now I'm stupid. I can never go back there. Do you see the difference? It's a tiny tweak, but it makes any story more interesting. But hey, a common mistake is that people share thoughts that sound too professional, too intellectual. They say something like, I thought this represents a supreme opportunity. Would your thoughts actually sound like that? Probably not, right? And so what you want to do is when you share your thoughts, give us the raw, unfiltered thoughts. Give us those a little bit like ranche, juicy, a little bit neurotic thoughts. Now that will make your story much more relatable. Fourth technique: emotions. What are you feeling? The best stories, they're emotional. They take the listeners on this emotional journey. And now, with the thoughts, with the previous technique, you know now one technique to make it more emotional, but there's another one. The simplest way is to just state an emotion. So you say something like, I was disappointed, I was relieved, I was happy. Now that is pretty standard, right? That is what most people do, but it's not ideal. Because it is not really visual, right? When you hear someone saying, I was disappointed, well, you cannot visualize it. And so the better way is to show the emotion. Show how it looks on the body, on the face, when you experience that emotion. Let me give you some examples. Instead of saying, I was relieved, say, in that moment, I leaned backward, I let out this big, ah. Or, instead of saying, he was anxious, say, he kept tapping his pen on the on the table, and he kept glancing up to the clock every few seconds. Do you see the difference? Showing the emotion makes it much more visual. It takes us into the specific moment of the story. Technique number five: dialogue. What are you hearing? Many of your stories will have more than one character. Maybe a manager, your friend, a coworker, your dog, whoever it is. Now, what did the character say in that crucial moment of the story? What were the exact words? Examples: Instead of saying, my friend was very disappointed, say, in that moment, my friend looked at me and said, Philip, what on earth was that? Or, instead of saying, my manager was very happy with my work, say, in that moment, my manager looked at me and said, wow, that was really the best presentation you've ever given. Now, do you see the difference? Dialogue is such a simple tool to make any story much more interesting. It is actually the tool that I use the most. But I guess there's just one thing to keep in mind. Similar as with the thoughts, share the dialogue that is a little bit more interesting, a little bit more juicy. If you say something like, in this moment, my manager said, well, I'm very dissatisfied with the inadequate execution of that project. Well, that would sound super boring, right? Instead, pick much more juicy, much more concise and catchy dialogue. All right, now that you know the five most important elements in storytelling, let's watch a quick one-minute video to see those elements in action. That story is by Sarah Willingham, who's a British entrepreneur, investor, and CEO of Nightcap. Now, when you watch this story, see how she zooms into the moment. Can you spot when she shares the location, the actions, the thoughts, the dialogue, and the feelings? So, in my mid-20s, I was running acquisitions for Pizza Express, and walked into a meeting room and was two minutes late for the meeting. And the person on the opposite side of the table, the lawyer, looked up and said, 'Oh, thank goodness for that, mine's a white with one sugar, please.' So, I thought, okay, this is a moment. walked 'round to the coffee, made him his coffee, put the coffee in front of him and said, 'Would anybody else like a coffee?' And, um, nobody said anything, nobody wanted one. I made myself a coffee and then sat back down again opposite him. And as he looked up, I watched the color drain from his face as he realized this enormous assumption that he'd made. And it was such a beautiful moment in my career, really empowering when I sat there and realized that actually this moment where I'd had imposter syndrome anyway, running a meeting like this, but I'd been completely misjudged by the people on the opposite side of the table, was actually this incredible superpower. Because guess who walked out with the deal? What an incredible storyteller, right? Today, you learned the foundations. You learned how to tell insanely good stories. But hey, there are also a few more advanced storytelling techniques out there. In case you want to go deeper on this journey, I would suggest to check out this next video. In which you learn how to be a better storyteller than 99% of the people. See you there.